Distorted (an Alex Kralie story)

Part 24

  Today is my birthday. I never thought I'd spend my birthday in a prison cell... but it's fine. I don't really care about the day. I just want to leave... Jay decided to visit me today... Again.
  The same little thing happened like last time. I sat down in that freezing room and Jay would sit behind a glass wall in front of me.

  "How have you been?"
  "I've been as good as prisoners go."
  "Mm. So I guess you aren't doing too well?"
  "Nope. Not really. I'm spending my birthday in Prison so... of course it isn't that great."
  "Yeah. That makes sense. And also back in 2013... whenever you..."
  "Yes. I remember 2013..."
  "You deserve to be in prison, Alex. Don't act like this is all a mistake. You know that you've done so many crimes. Stop acting like you're innocent."
  "That really sets the mood, Jay."
  "I'm just being honest."
  "Sometimes I don't need people to be honest. No one wants people's honest opinions at times. It's like you're just trying to make my day worse..."
  "Lennon didn't commit the crime."
  "Yeah he did... Jay. I wasn't even at Jessica's house at the time! I decided to pay him a visit."
  "You were, Alex. You were right there. You tied her up and you decided to inflict as many wounds as you wanted to."
  "That's a lie. That is such a fucking lie."
  "Remember how memory loss has occurred with both of us in the past. It affected all of us. This crime was committed by you..."
  "You weren't even there! How would you know?"
  "I have little urges as to what happens sometimes... It's my gut instinct. I just go with it."
  "Going with your gut instinct gets people killed. That's exactly what happened during your stupid run on YouTube with the Marble Hornets channel..."
  "You were the one behind the trigger, Alex. You almost killed me."
  "I thought I did! I didn't mean it though..."
  "You didn't mean something that you chose to do? So it was just an accident then? You found that gun directly in your hand and you decided to just shoot me?" He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.

  I looked up from him, expecting to see some sort of police officer or some other staff member here. No one was there. It felt like it was just Jay and I. But I knew someone was looking at this from afar.

  "You came here to make me feel terrible..."
  "I came here to tell you that you are not innocent."
  "I am. Whenever I don't choose my own actions, it isn't my fault."
  "Whatever..."
  "We shouldn't even be talking about this. If they overhear all the stuff I'm saying they'll give me to a mental hospital. I don't wanna go there."
  "Of course you don't. It's because you're going to stay right here."

  I closed my eyes and leaned back. I took a deep breath and then looked back at Jay. He stood up, and walked away. Jay didn't even bother to look back at me. He just left.

  Soon enough I was back in my cell. The wall was the only interesting thing at the moment. It had different creases and bumps in it. The wall was cold and surprisingly clean, despite the fact that it was in a thirty year old prison. Do they just clean these wall things or what...?
  It doesn't matter. I'd rather not think about everything wrong going in my life but honestly, it'll keep my mind busy. If it's something that'll keep me occupied, I might as well just think about it.

  "That was pretty interesting..."
  "What was pretty interesting?"
  "Didn't you see him earlier?"
  "Are you talking about Alex Kralie?"
  "Yeah I am. Remember in the greeting room?"
  "That was pretty odd. He just told us to take him there. He said he had a friend in the room."
  "Yep. Unless his best friend is dead silence, I don't know who it is."
  "That kid was just talking to himself. He was acting like he was talkin' to someone."

  I looked out at all of them and turned behind me.

"You're really quiet, man."
"Who the hell are you?"
"I'm your cellmate... My name's Ramon."
"I'm Alex. How'd you get in here?"
"You're just gonna skip to that huh?— Well, I killed my ex wife and her husband. She wasn't technically divorced with me... she just left and got a new man. I don't know. They brought me here when they found out that my mental condition was obviously not stable. I was put on all kinds of medication."
"I'm here for a crime I didn't commit. One of my friends was tortured and beat to death by her boyfriend, he blamed it on me..."
"And he just got away with it?"
"Yep. They won't let me out until there is a certified court date."
"That sucks, man. I was put in here for something that I sure as hell did, I deserve this."
"You seem like a nice guy, despite the fact on how you got here."

He shrugged and looked at me.

"How did you not notice I was here? I've been here the whole time..."
"I guess it's because I've been sleeping on the floor. I've also been way too busy contemplating every goddamn problem in my life."

He laid back down and faced the wall. He picked at the paint shavings which were slowly falling off.

"How much time do you get out of your cell, Ramon?"
"I get about two hours out of it each day. You?"
"I get four hours... But I usually spend most of my time in here anyways."
"Why not go out there? You could actually talk to people. I bet it's more interesting out there than it is in here!"

He laughed and I smiled back at him. It was great getting someone else's company after what had happened today.
Soon it was dark and Ramon was asleep. The police officers outside continued to talk about what has happened today.

"Alex kept on talking to his imaginary friend, Jay..." One of them laughed.
"I could tell from the start he was a schizophrenic."
"You bet!"

I didn't know they could just talk about people in that way.

"Jay was right in front of me."
"You're supposed to be asleep... lights out... go to bed."
"But, I wasn't making anything up. Jay was one of my college friends..."
"Alex, you really should get some sleep. We were joking. But if you are just going to talk to yourself... Please, stay in your room and do it. I doubt Ramon would mind. He can't hear much because he's quite old. Ramon's been here since 1996."

I looked away from them. Ignoring them was hard but I could find something else interesting to look at.

On the opposite side of me, a shadowed figure was standing beside a water fountain. I couldn't tell what it was. Until I saw it.

It was the faceless creature. That was stalking me for a long time before I came here. I looked away from it and found myself in my bed. My room was still covered in drawings.
I looked down at my hands and found blood dripping down from them.